November 12, 2007

A Bizarre Invocation

Take your pick. You can read about it on Reuters, the Associated Press, or in the New York Times in a dispatch by Isabel Kershner. Some reports say that six Palestinians were killed by Hamas fire at a Fatah-sponsored memorial for Yassir Arafat in Gaza. Others say eight. It could be more. Anyway, no less than 85 were wounded, including a Hamas policeman who was shot in the head. The dissension now is over who murdered whom?Mahmoud Abbas called it a "heinous crime." It was also another victory for his enemies. Fatah had mobilized 250,000 of its faithful to rouse support for the peace talks in Annapolis. Apparently, nobody noticed the irony of Arafat's name being invoked on behalf of negotiations. It was he who broke off the Camp David talks at which Bill Clinton pushed Ehud Barak into giving the Palestinians almost everything they'd said they needed. So there was another intifada instead.